President Ma Ying-jeou yesterday said that the health ministers from Taiwan and China are on equal footing at the World Health Assembly (WHA).

Ma's comment came as a clarification after a leaked World Health Organization (WHO) document shows that Taiwan is listed as a province of China.

A letter sent out by WHO Secretary-General Margaret Chan last September to WHO members referred to Taiwan as “Taiwan Province of China,” according to a report appearing in a local Chinese-language newspaper.

In response, President Ma explained that Taiwan's minister of health will receive equal treatment as his Chinese counterpart at the WHA meeting, which will be held in Geneva, Switzerland on May 16-25.

UPDATE: The offending memo from here. It is an internal document that helps members describe how to refer to the nations of the world. Since it says UN policy is to annex Taiwan to China, this obviously begs the question of the existence of similar documents issued from places above the WHO's head:

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Anyone here following the Queen's upcoming visit to Ireland? You can find some interesting parallels to Taiwan's situation -- or to Taiwan's situation in 2050? -- in the BBC background report, I think: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-13410979 .

It's really depressing to see Taiwanese treated like that. It just bothers me so much that so many Taiwanese still cannot see what's coming down the road with their country if they cannot stand together to fend off Chinese bully.

@D - Only if benshengren fought a civil war against the waishengren leading to a negotiated split with the waishengren taking the north, and then another civil war between the benshengren in the south who supported the split and those who opposed which led to those who opposed the peace being defeated, and then another between a small group of benshengren terrorists in the north and the waishengren majority which ended with a peaceful power-sharing agreement which was opposed by even smaller splinter groups on both sides.

So yes, if all those things happened, Taiwan would be just like Ireland.

Meanwhile, the only people who are actively worked up about the queen's visit are fringe splinter groups like the Real IRA. Most Irish people and British people don't give a damn about the Northern Irish dispute. Poll after poll shows that the majority of the British public would like to palm Northern Ireland off on the Irish Republic. The only problem is that the majority of people in Northern Ireland want to stay part of the union - they even had a referendum on it in the early seventies, and no NI election has ever given a majority to the Republicans. Even if a majority vote for unification with the Irish Republic could be acheived, it is doubtful that the Irish Republic would ever want to saddle itself with the burden of policing Northern Ireland.

The USDOS sotto voce message that Taiwan (or the ROC) is not a nation among nations but an undecided issue dating, as we know, many, many years back, is percolating into the international community.

How long till that message breaks the language barrier in the Chinese language media on Taiwan?

Do not the Formosans hold the passport illegally issued them by the occupier/exiled government they host?

If the Formosans are clueless enough in regard to their allegiances, then, why not try…. say… a US or whatever passport, as kindly suggested in this video clip?

As an aside, the commenter who misconstrued as French those employees at the Palace of Nations in Geneva has gravely offended the patriotic feelings of the whole Swiss Confederation and of this Swiss passport-holder.

Instead of getting all pissed at the bad Europeans, the South Koreans, etc. start to get pissed at China and the KMT Government people! I mean, how do you think somebody could even acknowledge the ROC?! It's fictional claims of representing whole China, Mongolia, etc. preculde this from the start.

I don't think the man is lying in as far that he's arbitrarily refusing them entry. I'm sure that he will have been told in no uncertain terms that he is to do that. The question is whether the "rule" is valid in that entry can be refused based on an administrative decision.

Because it would seem that this "rule" has been imposed by the WHA/WHO administration. Clearly that's ridiculous and in my view spiteful. In no certain terms this is down to CHINA and not the US, Japan or the EU.

HOT! HOT! HOT!

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